Photo: Comac
This milestone has been 14 years in the making – this is how much it’s been since the C919 airliner was launched to the moment it finally received type certification in China. As it gets ready to start transporting passengers, China’s first official airliner produced domestically is still far from what the Beijing authorities hope it will become.
Both China and Russia are trying to diminish their dependency on the West in the aviation sector, and they’re doing that by developing locally-made aircraft. The goal is that one day their national fleets would be comprised exclusively of these “homegrown” airliners, which would also compete with Boeing and Airbus in terms of exports.
While Russia seems to be well on its way, also due to the international restrictions that leave it no other choice, China is moving slowly. It recently celebrated the certification of the C919, built by the state-owned Comac (Commercial Aircraft Corp of China), but there are several issues that diminish the importance of this apparent success.
First of all, unlike the Russian MC-21, the C919 still takes most of its components, including the engine and avionics, from Western providers such as GE, Safran, and Honeywell. Secondly, it hasn’t been certified by the EU or the U.S. regulators, and there’s no indication of when that’s happening. Last but not least, even though it got the green light to enter service starting next year, it still requires a separate certificate for mass production.
These are some of the factors that keep the C919 at a considerable distance from the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320, which it claimed to challenge. The manufacturer boasts about 800 orders from 28 customers, but China Eastern, the country’s second-largest carrier, is the only one that publicly confirmed the order. Even so, it will only operate four new C919 airliners starting next year.
The C919 was designed to carry up to 168 passengers, with a maximum range of 5,555 km (3,451 miles). The narrow-body jet completed its first test flight in 2017.
While Russia seems to be well on its way, also due to the international restrictions that leave it no other choice, China is moving slowly. It recently celebrated the certification of the C919, built by the state-owned Comac (Commercial Aircraft Corp of China), but there are several issues that diminish the importance of this apparent success.
First of all, unlike the Russian MC-21, the C919 still takes most of its components, including the engine and avionics, from Western providers such as GE, Safran, and Honeywell. Secondly, it hasn’t been certified by the EU or the U.S. regulators, and there’s no indication of when that’s happening. Last but not least, even though it got the green light to enter service starting next year, it still requires a separate certificate for mass production.
These are some of the factors that keep the C919 at a considerable distance from the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320, which it claimed to challenge. The manufacturer boasts about 800 orders from 28 customers, but China Eastern, the country’s second-largest carrier, is the only one that publicly confirmed the order. Even so, it will only operate four new C919 airliners starting next year.
The C919 was designed to carry up to 168 passengers, with a maximum range of 5,555 km (3,451 miles). The narrow-body jet completed its first test flight in 2017.
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